The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday January 21, 2009 - 7 Halton has shovels ready for $182-M worth of projects By Tim Foran METROLAND WEST MEDIA GROUP Halton municipalities have submitted a $182-million list of "shovelready" projects to the federal government for funding consideration in the upcoming Canadian budget. Regional water and wastewater projects totalling $100 million and creating an estimated 1,140 jobs make up the bulk of the massive infrastructure project proposal. The 20-project list, put forward this week through the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), includes another $82 million for local roads and transit projects as well as the retrofit and refurbishment of 4,000 regional non-profit and cooperative housing units. In total, the Halton-based projects would create an estimated 2,059 jobs, according to the FCM report. The list is focused on imperative infrastructure needs rather than desirable items such as new arenas or arts centres, said Halton Hills Regional Councillor Clark Somerville, who represents Halton on the FCM board of directors. The municipalities have already planned these projects and shovels can hit the ground this spring if the funding starts to flow, he added. In total, FCM's list encompasses more than 1,000 projects across Canada with a total cost of $13.7 bil- lion. "It would benefit 19.2 million Canadians and it would be about 156,000 jobs," Somerville said of the projects' economic effect. However, the money would only begin to address the $123-billion infrastructure deficit facing Canadian municipalities, he added. Each of Halton's municipalities submitted their shovel-ready items to the FCM over Christmas, said Somerville. While Halton chose to prioritize water and wastewater projects, all three of Burlington, Oakville and Milton submitted public transit projects for consideration. Halton Hills submitted five projects focused on roads repair. Among the lower municipalities, the two big-ticket items include a $43 million bus maintenance and storage facility in Oakville and $14 million for new buses in Burlington. Milton has one project on the list, $1.5 million for new buses. The list itself isn't comprehensive, warned Somerville. The projects are examples of job creating infrastructure items the government can use as the basis for an expected economic stimulus in the budget. Somerville said the FCM is encouraging the government to use the existing gas tax transfer formula to distribute any infrastructure funds to municipalities that it announces in the budget. That for- mula is based on population figures from census data and each municipality receives its share of the total funds -- currently equivalent to 2.5 cents per litre but doubling in 2009/10 -- based on its number of residents. The FCM prefers the gas tax formula because it allows municipalities to plan budgets around a steady and predictable stream of funds. It has criticized the government's Building Canada Fund because municipalities have to apply for funding and there's no guarantee of getting money. "Application-based funding is slow and cumbersome," Somerville said. The $1 billion Canadian municipalities will receive from the federal gas tax transfer this fiscal year isn't simply a blank cheque. The money can only be used for infrastructurerelated projects and municipalities have to report back each year to the government demonstrating compliance with program rules. Burlington MP Mike Wallace, a former municipal politician who now chairs the GTA caucus, said the gas tax transfer formula is a good approach but not the only one. "There are bigger projects that need provincial support," Wallace said, using the example of an exten- sion of a GO Transit line. "That's the kind of project where you need all three partners." Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr said he believes the federal government may prefer a one-third funding formula to be used as part of its economic stimulus rather than a cash disbursement directly to municipalities. In that formula, the federal, provincial and municipal governments would each cover an equal share of the costs for any infrastructure project. "We're prepared to move forward and use some of our money on a one-third basis," said Carr. Oakville will get more federal gas tax funds By Tim Foran METROLAND WEST MEDIA GROUP Halton municipalities will be the recipients of a greater share of federal gas tax dollars in coming years as the funding formula used to distribute the money catches up with the latest census data on population. The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) recently announced funding coming from federal gas tax dollars for the years 2010 to 2014 will be distributed based on 2006 population figures, rather than the 2001 census data currently used. Though the figures are already out of date for the faster growing parts of Halton, the newer data means hundreds of thousands of dollars more will flow into Milton and Oakville, and $1.3 million more for Halton Region. The extra money is on top of a previously announced doubling of the gas tax funds that will be deliv- ered to Canadian municipalities starting in the 2009/10 fiscal year. The federal government will increase its funding to $2 billion, or the equivalent of five cents a litre, from the current $1 billion. "We're very pleased," said Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr. "We see this as a real important step for municipalities to do the functions they perform." The next census data on population won't be released until 2011. In total, Halton's five municipalities will receive a total of $12.2 million in federal gas tax dollars this 2008/09, according to AMO data. That will double next year, and increase again to an annual $27 million from 2010/11 to 2013/14. All money must be spent on infrastructure programs supporting public transit, drinking water, wastewater, green energy, solid waste management, and local roads and bridges, according to information from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Where are weapons coming from? DOWNTOWN OAKVILLE 183 Lakeshore Road East · 905.845.8911 MON-WED 9-6 · THU-FRI 9-8 · SAT 9-6 · SUN 12-5 Continued from page 6 armed ground forces? Weapons and money are obviously being supplied by some other state or organization, which supports this policy. Are the suppliers interested in peace, or in the continuing conflict? JERRY REID www.garveys.ca Free parking at the rear of store